Kubi's killing the backlog!
kubikill’s profile

Hello! My name is Jakub.

My purpose in life is to play games, clean backlogs and spit out ugly spaghetti code that actually make things work and look pretty.

Game strategy: Focus on unfinished games! Get 100% achievements if possible.

Before I started fighting the backlog for real, I used to jump from game to game much more often, resulting in boatloads of unfinished games. Because of that, I focus on unfinished games more than never played games.

2018

I made BLAEO Generators - a tool that generates game boxes and various bars to use in posts. I hope you'll find it useful!
If you have any suggestions or features you would like to be added, please write a message in the Steam group thread.

January + February 2019 Progress

Finished games:

Dex

A really interesting 2D cyberpunk open-world sidescrolling RPG. The story is great and the characters are well built. Each part of the city feels unique, the graphics are nice overall and there's lots of interesting sidequests to do. Combat is pretty hard at the beginning at the game though, and stealth feels basic and not viable.

This one's a hidden gem. If you like Shadowrun and/or Deus Ex (is this where the game got its name from?), you'll definitely like this game as well.

Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered

A interactive movie action-adventure game made by Quantic Dream, the same studio that made Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human. It holds up pretty well despite being old. The voice acting is superb, the story is gripping and really good, but it gets really chaotic and weird near the ending. Some of the QTEs are too long, though. The keyboard + mouse controls are clunky. Some people claim the game is nearly unplayable with those controls, but I did not have any major issues.

If you played and liked either of these (or any of Telltale's games), you'll like this game for sure.

Just Cause 3

A action-adventure game with a open world.
Just Cause 3 is a huge improvement over JC2. Weapons have more variety, the wingsuit is fun to use (especially with DLC), tethers are now actually useful, characters are interesting and likeable (Mario Frigo is the best character, no doubt about it), the world is very beautiful and full of things and easter eggs to check out. The only things I can complain about is that it's too hard to get the maximum rating on certain challenges and the game is badly optimized on all platforms (it uses so much RAM, 16GB of it is required to play the game without it stuttering). I also kinda miss the goofy voices of the soldiers from JC2.

If you want to blow some stuff up and mess around, this is the perfect game for you. This is the best Just Cause game. It's really sad to see how badly they screwed up Just Cause 4 :(

Subsurface Circular

A 2 hour-long visual novel with a great narrative. All characters have different personalities and it was interesting to hear them talk about the world and its current problems. You can shape your own character's personality as well. The text-based puzzles are pretty nice, too. Music is great and the graphics are decent. I recommend this one if you like text-based adventure games or visual novels.

Alpha Protocol

14.9 hours, no achievements

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A action RPG with stealth elements. The best part of the game is definitely the story and the choices you can make. Choices matter and characters will talk to you differently based on your attitude, past actions and your reputation with them. The gameplay is clunky, some perks are hilariously overpowered (cough Shadow Operative cough) and the AI is dumb at times. For its time, the graphics look OK but the character animations are a bit weird.
This is a rough hidden gem. If you can look past the game's flaws, you'll love it. Make sure to check PCGamingWiki before playing to improve the game's graphics and performance.

Show more games

Zuma Deluxe

3.6 hours, no achievements

More

A casual match 3 game. I'm sure all of you played this game in a web browser at some point... But if you didn't, this is a cool game for short sessions. Easy to pick up and hard to master. Levels are short and you can save and quit at any point you want. The game gets really hard in the last levels, and the strategy you use on earlier levels may not work on the later ones. Still, it's a great time waster that can be played by casual players.

Insaniquarium! Deluxe

3.5 hours, no achievements

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Did you ever have that moment when you feed your cute little guppies in your aquarium and all of sudden some scary aliens come crashing the party out of nowhere to eat all your fish? This game is basically it, but you now have a laser gun to show them who's the boss. I almost broke my left mouse button because I was desperately trying to feed over 50 fishes while keeping 2 aliens outta my underwater lawn at the same time.
This game is insane and I love it.

You Have 10 Seconds

0.1 hours, no achievements

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A simple platformer. Gives you a bit of a challenge, but it's very, very short. It's free though, so if you like platformers and have 10-20 minutes to spare, play this.

You Have 10 Seconds 2

0.5 hours, no achievements

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Pretty much the same thing as the first game, but longer and with new levels and mechanics. This game is free too, so if you liked the first game, play this as well.

Live

A 2D platformer, DDR clone and a clicker mashed into one strange, funny and very short game entirely made out of stock assets… wait, why did I play this???

Meteor 60 Seconds!

0.4 hours, no achievements

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A short game where you have 60 seconds left to do whatever you want before Earth is destroyed. Gameplay is fun and simple and the endings are hilarious. Can't really say anything else because that would spoil the game. Just play this game! It should take you around 30 minutes to get all endings.

We’ve finally made progress in Borderlands with Garcias! We’ve completed 2 DLCs and are now playing the Underdome. The rounds take waaaaay too long.

I did make some progress in CSD2 but I forgot how many gold medals I have and I’m too lazy to check. I’m pretty close to getting them all!

Hector: Badge of Carnage is pretty interesting. I love the British humour and the puzzles aren’t too hard. I’m currently playing through the 3rd, last episode.

I booted up Mountain a while ago and it’s not really a game. It’s more like a screensaver. I’ll probably get all the achievements then never launch this again.

I got bored of All Walls Must Fall after around 7 hours of gameplay. To get all achievements you need to beat the campaign, like, 10 times or more… and there’s an achievement for collecting all 600-700ish collectibles. So far I have around 100. I’ll get the achievements that don’t require much time, then move on to something else.

Next up:

Yakuza Kiwami

0.0 hours playtime

no achievements

I’ve been waiting so long for this! It’s finally coming out tomorrow and I can’t wait to play it. I wonder how much stuff did they change from the original PS2 version?

Current progress

27%

9%

14%

50%

0%

does not include "won't play" games

Final notes

Here’s an update on my 2019 goals:

I’ve received a lot of Steam wallet money from completing online offers and spent almost all of it in the Lunar New Year sale on Steam. None of my real money was spent, so all good for now!

I did some progress in CSD2. Maybe I’ll complete it before December 2019! Probably… I think?

I’m sitting at 124 completed games right now. I need to complete 76 games in a little over 10 months - around 8 games per month. I might have made the goal a bit too hard, but I’ll try my best!

My reviews will now be shorter. Writing them took too long because I didn’t know what to type.

I’ve sorted out my “won’t play” list, resulting in over 100 mostly bad games landing in my pile of shame. I wonder if there’s going to be a “play a bad game” month?

I said I’ll pick games from monthly themes more often… but now that Yakuza Kiwami is coming out, I can’t pick any games. I promise I’ll get back to it right after that!

December 2018 Progress

Finished games:

EDGE

It's a really simple game. Gameplay is fun, addicting and easy enough for casual players. Levels are short, which is great for short game sessions. The graphics are minimalistic, but appealing. The soundtrack is good and varied. My only compliant is that sometimes you'll be unable to move on moving platforms (which usually results in you falling off the level).

It's a great, cheap game (it costs less than $1 on Steam right now!). Get the Android/iOS/3DS version instead if you want to play it on the go.

Suits: A Business RPG

Gameplay-wise, it's average, but thankfully the game is short enough for gameplay to not feel too repetitive. But if you tough the battles out, you'll see that the game doesn't take itself seriously and you'll encounter silly references, brilliant jokes and several WTF moments. (The dinosaur fight easily tops them all). The graphics may look unfinished at first, but the artstyle and the soundtrack both fit the dark atmosphere very well.

For the surprisingly low price of $1 ($0.50 on sale), this game will keep you entertained for a couple hours. It's definitely one of the most unique RPG Maker games.

Overcooked

This is one of the best co-op games I've ever played. It's one of those games that will either break or strengthen a friendship. Levels are creatively designed to encourage cooperation and coordination and it's so easy to cause chaos in the kitchen. Unfortunately singleplayer mode sucks. All the best aspects are gone and managing 2 chefs by yourself is much harder. The fact that this game has no online multiplayer makes everything worse if you don't have anyone to play with.

If you have anyone nearby to play this game with, then GET THIS GAME! If not, check the sequel instead, as it at least has online multiplayer.

RUSH

The main concept is easy to learn. The puzzles are grouped by difficulty ranging from easy to very hard, which is nice. There's a hint system that you can use if you get stuck. The amount of puzzles is quite low though, and the game can be finished in just a couple hours. Can be bought for an incredibly small price of $0.50 on sale.

Great time waster to relax by if you like puzzles.

Toki Tori

It's a very cute game, but there's more puzzle than platformer in this game. The game gives you a lot of freedom in how you solve the levels. You can take as much time as you want, and if you ever make a mistake, you can undo it by rewinding time, which also allows you to experiment with different ways to get across gaps, enemies, etc. New mechanics are introduced in each area to keep things fresh. The levels are grouped by normal and hard difficulty - perfect for those who would like something harder. If you need help, the game will let you skip 1 level, but it won't give you hints. The soundtrack is great as well - it adds to the charm the game has.

Definitely recommend this one.

Human Resource Machine

??? hours, no achievements

More

A programming puzzle game.

If you want to learn programming, this is a great game to start with, as it does a great job at teaching you the basics. At the beginning it eases you in nicely with very simple programs, but the last levels get too complicated and tedious. The small, basic instruction set closely resembles a low-level language (like assembly), which might be a problem if you're used to programming in high-level languages (like Java, Python or Lua). The interface could use some more work - jumps make your program hard to read, the more jumps, the worse it becomes. Also, you can't copy/paste code, only whole programs. As for the rest, the graphics look cute and your bosses on each level have lots of interesting and weird things to say.

Play only if you want to learn programming or like to program in low-level languages.

I’ve played Heavy Rain before and so far I feel like at home in this game. Fahrenheit hooked me in with its story, but some of the moments made me go “WTF is going on?!” (Talking about Lucas’s QTE segments in the bank and in his apartment)

Rewinding time in All Walls Must Fall is great! I find it fun that I can empty all my guns at the guards and then rewind time only for myself so it’s like I never took any damage and I don’t have to reload. I finished the campaign and now I’m going for all the achievements, which is going to take a while.

Alpha Protocol seems cool so far. Never thought that adding RPG elements to a stealth game would work so well!

I remember spending so many hours playing Super Scribblenauts for the DS. Feels great to go back to this series on my phone!

Current progress

16%

6%

9%

47%

22%

End of February 2018 progress

9%

11%

17%

55%

7%

Goals for 2019:

Buy less games. I can barely keep up with the games I buy. I’ll stop buying games during Steam sales and focus on buying bundles alone (I’ll make an exception for Yakuza Kiwami, but only once. Sorry, Shakedown: Hawaii!).

Complete Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!. bloody hell this game is on my currently playing list since february and i still haven’t finished it goddamn it

Reach 200 completed games! (This will be tough!)

Change how I write reviews. I feel like my reviews aren’t good. Sometimes I don’t know what to write, sometimes I don’t know what should I focus on… I’ll try to write them in a different way in 2019.

Sort out my “won’t play” list. I have to go through my game list again and filter out all the bad games I have.

October + November 2018 Progress

October

No Time To Explain Remastered

A platform game with--
Oh, shoot! I'm running out of time to explain this game!
Okay, so you're chilling in your house when future you comes out of nowhere and he says has no time to explain and then he suddenly gets kidnapped by a mutant crab and you grab a laser and go rescue him and use the laser to propel yourself through hard levels and then you meet and another future you who happens to be a football player with a shotgun and then you meet another future you you collect hats and then suddenly you meet a talking, dancing muffin???

This is one of the craziest games I've ever played. Shame that it's pretty short, though :/

Costume Quest

One of the most cute and charming games I've ever played. It looks like a game only for kids, but adults will enjoy it as well. Great sense of humor that will make you laugh dozens of times. The combat is good, but simple enough to feel repetitive after a few hours of playing.

Adult or not, definitely check this game out. The low difficulty makes this game easy to pick up for casual players. I recommend to play this game during the Halloween season.

Creepy Castle

An adventure game combined with some WarioWare, RPG and metroidvania elements.

The story is most definitely the strongest point of this game. It's well written and detailed and the characters are unique and memorable. Combat is fun, but gets repetitive after some time, especially since the game does not introduce any new battle mechanics or mini-games after the 1st scenario. The 3rd scenario (Depth) made it worse by reducing enemy variety (resulting in playing the same mini-games again and again in certain segments). The same scenario also contains huge levels where it's easy to get lost unless you have a map. Except that the in-game map is barely useful. All it does is show you where you've been and where the save points are. It won't show you items, it won't show you if a path is blocked behind a locked door and you can't scroll it to see the entire area. (The dev did promise to improve the map and they're still working on an update, but no release date yet)
Some people compare this game to Undertale, but in my opinion both games aren't really similiar to each other as the combat system is different, you can't spare or befriend enemies and the story is fully linear - no choices and only one ending.

If you enjoy retro games, love deep lore and don't mind exploring and getting lost, Creepy Castle may just be the game for you. If you're not going for 100% achievements, I recommend skipping the 3rd scenario (Depth), as it has little to no story included.

November

Day of the Tentacle Remastered

A point-and-click adventure game.
The puzzles are very creative and some of the solutions are so weird and crazy that I would never come up with them. The humor is great, too. The downside is that the puzzles are very hard and help is scarce - there isn't anything that will help you if you get stuck, but the game will provide subtle, vague hints when examining certain items.
The remaster itself is done very well - the updated graphics fit the original style, the new interface is pretty handy and the sounds and voices are kept the same, but in high quality. It's also nice that the original Maniac Mansion is included as well, just like in the original version.

It's a very good game overall, but you'll most definitely get stuck at some point. If you're going to play this game, I would recommend using this website, as it will provide you with hints so you can figure out the solution with minimal help.

Fallout 3

45.6 hours, no achievements

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A post-apocalyptic action-RPG with an open world.

Playing this after Fallout New Vegas felt weird. Couldn't mod weapons, speech checks were chance-based, V.A.T.S. was overpowered, there were no reloading benches, no companion wheel, no hardcore mode… but even without all those improvements, I still liked the game. The story and the side quests from the main game were quite interesting.
The DLCs - Operation Anchorage and The Pitt were average, Broken Steel extended the main story which was pretty good, Point Lookout added an interesting location to explore and Mothership Zeta was fun.
As for the PC port… oh god, it's so horrible. Crappy performance, frequent crashing and on top of that it uses Games for Windows Live. Heck, even the store page says that it is not optimized for Windows 7 or later (!!). The modding community did fix most of the issues present in the game themselves, crashes included, but installing and applying all the mods and fixes will take at least an hour or two, possibly more.

Despite being inferior to Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 3 is still worth trying out. Keep in mind that you'll have to spend a bit of time to get this game to run. If you own Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, both with all DLC's, don't bother with fixing Fallout 3 and just install the Tale of Two Wastelands mod for Fallout New Vegas, which brings all Fallout 3 content to New Vegas.

Mad Max

Vehicular combat is so fun in this game. You can either ram into the enemy cars, shoot the fuel tanks or just blow them up entirely with a thunderpoon, resulting in spectacular explosions. But you can go smart as well by shooting the driver with a shotgun or destroying the car wheels to make the car stop, but what's the fun in that when there are no explosions to watch? Ground combat is good, but nothing special.
For a 2015 game, it looks really, really beautiful. Surprisingly, the wasteland doesn't feel empty. There's tons of locations to loot and explore. The story is short and meh, though, so there's no need to rush through it. No knowledge of the movies is required to understand the story, but if you know the movies, you might get a few of the references. I liked this game, but it got repetitive towards the end.

Deltarune

2.2 hours, no achievements

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A turn-based RPG with bullet-hell mechanics. Spin-off of Undertale.

While not as amazing or long as Undertale, it still has a deep story, charming characters and lots of humor. However, compared to Undertale, Deltarune is linear and choices barely matter. Combat has been greatly expanded, but it's no longer as challenging - I completed the game on first try without getting any party members knocked out and without using items and the secret boss is the only enemy in the game that made me use items and once managed to knock out 2 party members.

I don't really want to say more since it's so short, but if you liked Undertale, you'd be crazy to not play this. If you didn't play Undertale yet, I highly recommend playing it first.

Unfinished games:

I still play CSD2, doing 2-3 shifts every session. It’s not much per session, but it’s progress! Just to clear things up, rather than going only for all achievements, I’m going for full 100% completion, including reaching rank 125, getting gold medals in all 400 Chef 4 Hire shifts and completing all milestones in the CSD restaurant.

Current progress

September 2018 Progress

Finished games:

Yakuza 0

A brawler with JRPG elements, heavy focus on story and lots of minigames. Not similiar to Grand Theft Auto, despite being called "Japanese GTA".

Yakuza 0 was one of the wildest rides I've ever been on. The story is amazing. It keeps surprising you with twists and turns that you don't expect. It's easily one of the best criminal dramas ever made. It might be super serious, but once you start digging into the side content… Oh boy.
I hired a chicken to be one of my real estate managers. I watched two women slap the crap out of them in a underground fight tournament. I sent a TV host to Area 51 to fetch me some weapon parts. I played bowling, sang karaoke and raced miniature cars despite the fact that an entire yakuza family wanted me dead. There's enough side content in this game to make you forget that the main storyline exists - dancing, managing a cabaret club, baseball, mahjong, fishing, even arcade games like OutRun! On top of that, there's a lot of funny and bizarre sidequests (called substories in-game) to do.
As for the main gameplay (fighting enemies), it starts simple. You have a small moveset and no weapons, but as you go further, you'll unlock new moves, new fighting styles (both protagonists have 3 styles + 1 secret style) and you'll be able to craft weapons, firearms, armor and accessories. Beating up enemies is extremely fun. You can pick up stuff like signs, trash cans and bicycles and then smash them on some poor thug's head. You can also perform special attacks that are brutal and sometimes just downright hilarious.
For a game originally released on PS3 in 2015, it looks very beautiful, especially during nighttime. The PC port is quite good. It runs well on low-end PCs and has plenty of settings. Most of the issues present at release were fixed too, but some remain unpatched. The game is fully playable with a mouse and keyboard, but a controller is heavily recommended.

In conclusion, Yakuza 0 is an excellent game that is well worth the $20 it's asking for. The main story alone takes around 30 hours and getting all achievements will take you at least 110 hours. I can't wait for Yakuza Kiwami already.

Oh, and since it's Otterly Cute September, here's a picture of my employee of the month:

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

43.5 hours, no achievements

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A standalone release of two of Grand Theft Auto IV's add-ons: The Lost and Damned & The Ballad of Gay Tony.

TLaD and TBoGT expand GTA IV by giving you 2 new protagonists with new storylines that take place during GTA IV's story, new missions, weapons, vehicles and activities.
TLaD just gives you more GTA IV, differences being that it's shorter, has slightly better bike handling and doesn't have annoying friends that invite you to bowling every 5 minutes.
TBoGT, on the other hand, feels like a big improvement over GTA IV. It has crazy missions, weapons that are fun to use (explosive shotgun, sticky bombs and the gold SMG are the best!), parachutes, underground fights and nightclubs.
Just like IV, EFLC suffers from terrible performance and the fact that it uses Games for Windows Live. I recommend installing this mod pack, which fixes some issues, greatly improves graphics without impacting performance, removes GFWL and restores removed music from radio stations.

I recommend Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City to anyone who played and enjoyed GTA IV and wants more. Both expansions are quite solid and I had lots of fun, especially in TBoGT. Completing the main story in both games will take you around 15 hours. Getting 100% completion in both games takes at least 35 hours.

Since there are no Steam achievements for this game, here are 100% completion screenshots:

Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut

A pretty short game with quite interesting mechanics. The puzzles are pretty good and easy enough to figure out without a walkthrough. The story is OK, though it seems unnecessary. I also couldn't understand some words because there are no subtitles. The Against the Qlock mode is a nice bonus. It contains 10 new levels that you have to complete as fast as possible. Speedrunning through them is pretty fun, as there's a lot of secrets that you can use to complete levels even faster.

A good choice for those who are looking for a first person puzzle game. The game is around 3 hours long. I would not recommend getting 100% completion, as some achievements are very grindy.

Lumino City

??? hours, no achievements

More

A puzzle adventure game.

This game has a unique and beautiful art style. The city in this game was built in real life and then digitized. It looks so well, you may think it was generated entirely with a computer. The puzzles are hit and miss, though - some are clever and some are too obscure. Luckily, if you ever get stuck, you have a manual that'll help you out. It kind of sucks that the manual gives you a complete solution rather than just a hint, but looking up the solution in the manual is a puzzle by itself - since the manual is huge, you have to figure out which page has the solution you need.

It's worth picking up if you can look past the obscure puzzles. The game takes around 4-5 hours to complete.

Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign

??? hours, no achievements

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A tower-defense game, but the sides are switched - it's you who is attacking.

Gameplay is innovative and addicting. It made me go "Just one more level…". Missions are pretty short, so you can play during a short break or when you're waiting for the bus. The story is basic and the voice acting is pretty good.

If you like strategy, tactics and tower defense games, you'll like this game. It takes around 3 hours to beat this game.

Games added to the "Currently playing" list for this month:

This month I’ll play 2 games from my Challenge Me! list - No Time To Explain Remastered and Costume Quest.

Current progress:

15%

7%

12%

42%

24%

Conclusion:

With Yakuza 0 out of the way, I can finally continue the fight with my backlog! I’m kind of sad to see this game go, though.
I’ll have less time to play now, since I’m working on a new project, I have to deal with school and I also want to start taking driving lessons in October. This will be a tough month.

Unfinished games with progress:

This month, I’ve mainly focused on Yakuza 0. 100+ hours of playtime and I haven’t even finished the story yet. I’m at the last chapter, at the final “point of no return”. Things are getting a bit out of hand and I’m supposed to be at a certain place doing something very, very important, but smart me decides that playing mahjong, going fishing and searching for telephone cards is more important… Thankfully, the baddies are polite enough to wait until I’m done loafing around… or they’re just incredibly slow. I’m going for 100% completion and so far I have 87% - getting close now!

Since most of my free time went into Yakuza 0, I haven’t had much time to play anything else, even on my phone. I’m now 2/3 through Anomaly Warzone Earth, halfway through Lumino City and in Evoland 2, I’ve reached the shmup part.

Unfinished games with no progress:

My Borderlands co-op partner, Garcias was without a PC for the most of August and was unable to play Borderlands this month. I hope we’ll be able to resume playing soon!

I’ve made absolutely zero progress on CSD2 and Creepy Castle since I started playing Yakuza 0. I’m putting them on hold for now and I’ll get back to them as soon as I’m done with Yakuza.

Current progress:

14%

8%

14%

41%

24%

Conclusion

Yakuza 0 single-handedly stopped me from doing any significant progress on my backlog assassinations. I love this game and I really want to keep playing it, but there’s still over 300 games in my library that require my attention. As soon as I 100% Yakuza 0, I’ll be back to do some actual backlog assassinations! …until Yakuza Kiwami comes out.

By the way, I have a question for BLAEO Generators users - do you have any requests for features that you would like to be added? While I haven’t updated BLAEO Generators since May, I’m still here to fix the generator in case something breaks or add something that may be of use to someone.

July 2018 Progress

Finished games:

Just Cause 2

An open world action-adventure TPS. This is what would happen if you mix a cliche action movie directed by Michael Bay with Grand Theft Auto.

I love how much freedom this game gives you. You want to kill a soldier, but how do you do it? You can just shoot them, right? But why shoot when you can use your grappling hook to attach a soldier to a gas canister and then watch as he flies all over the place? Why bother with guns at all when you can attach a soldier to the roof to turn them into a punching bag? Or tether them to a car and then take them on a tour? There are so many ways to kill an enemy, so many locations so explore, so much stuff to blow up. The world is your sandbox and you're free to do anything you want.
But the voice acting… Oh god, the voice acting… It's so bad and hilarious enough to make you feel like you're watching an 80s action movie. Almost everyone talks with a weird, overemphasized foreign accent and most people use those cool-sounding foreign words that you don't understand. Seriously, listen for yourself. I still chuckle every time an enemy throws a cheesy, generic one-liner at me.

Just Cause 2 is easily one of the best sandbox games ever made. If you're looking for a game where you can have fun blowing everything up and coming up with spectacular ways to kill enemies, or want to experience a cliche 80s action movie in game form, this is for you.

Emily is Away Too

A visual novel, set in a IM chat client resembling AOL Instant Messenger.

This game will literally take you back to the 2000's days. Days when everyone used Windows XP, YouTube and Facebook were starting out, YTMND was at it's height of popularity and playing Flash games was the best thing you could do on an IT class. I loved the nostalgia trip and it's a shame that those early Internet days won't be coming back.
The story is pretty good. It feels like you're talking to real people in the 2000s, however there are a couple issues. To spoil as little as possible, I'll say that there's a certain part that has you do something. At first it'll look like it's possible to do that, but later the game will make it harder and harder until eventually the game forces you to fail that part. This is something I really hate in games - if there's a part that forces the player to fail, don't make it look like it's possible to succeed. That makes people restart and try again multiple times for nothing. If you've beaten this game, then I'm talking about Chapter 3, when you have to talk to Emily and Evelyn at the same time and respond to them within a time limit.
Also, if you make one small mistake during a playthrough, you'll be met with an ending where one of the characters will rage at you over that insignificant flub. You can get the same ending for screwing up big time, but for a small slipup? Come on. If you've beaten this game, I'm talking about lying to Emily and Evelyn. One small lie is enough to piss them off and get them to break up with you. And there's no way to calm them down.

Emily is Away Too a decent visual novel, great for anyone growing up in the 2000's Internet. I recommend playing the free prequel first before buying.

Saints Row IV

An open-world action adventure game. I've written about the previous game, Saints Row: The Third in my previous post.

The game is very similiar to SR:TT. Screwing around in SR:TT's Steelport was fun, but SR IV takes it to the next level with superpowers. The game gives you more ways to mess with enemies: you can now throw them around like ragdolls, freeze them, shrink them or set them on fire just by violating their personal space. Just like The Third, there's tons of things to do and you won't get bored of the game for quite a while.

Saints Row IV is just as good as The Third, if not better. Definitely play if you like the previous Saints Row games. If you're new to Saints Row though, I highly recommend playing The Third first, as it's difficult to go back to The Third after getting used to IV's superpowers. Pick up the Game of the Century Edition, as the DLCs add new missions, weapons and outfits.

L.A. Noire

This is probably the best detective game ever made. The story, facial animations and voice acting are all top-notch. Team Bondi did an excellent job on recreating the 1947's Los Angeles - the cars, the outfits people wear, the buildings, the advertisements, the radio… It feels like you really are in the 40's. Gameplay is solid as well - you get to interrogate witnesses and suspects, search crime scenes for clues, chase after suspects both on foot and in a car and you get to use your pistol as well.

L.A. Noire is great and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good detective game.

This month's new "Currently playing" games

I’ve waited so long for Yakuza 0! So far, I have a blast with it despite issues with the PC port. To anyone considering purchasing Yakuza 0, I would recommend to wait for a patch to be released.

This month I’ve decided to play Anomaly Warzone Earth, Lumino City and Evoland 2 on my phone. AWE seems addicting so far! Haven’t tried Lumino City yet. As for Evoland 2, I’ve played it on PC before, but abandoned it shortly after. I thought I’ll give it another try this month.

Current progress

14%

8%

14%

41%

24%

Conclusion

I’ve enjoyed playing games this month, but I’m not really satisfied with progress on CSD2 and Creepy Castle. I thought about playing them more in August but now that Yakuza 0 is here to steal all my free time… sigh
I went through my library to add more games to the “won’t play” list. I got quite annoyed with all those garbage card farming games, so I’ve put them where they belong. Such irony that this month’s theme is to play games from the “won’t play” category…
Also I’ve noticed that it’s getting harder and harder for me to write game reviews. I’m having difficulties with coming up what to write and I feel that it’s taking up too much of my time. I’ll keep reviews shorter from now on.

June + 1st Week of July Progress

Finished games:

Don't Sink

A sandbox adventure RPG game about being a captain of a pirate ship. You swim from island to island to take quests, trade, capture and manage islands as well as sink any fool who swims too close to your ship. Since this is a sandbox, the game doesn't end.

The gameplay isn't interesting enough to keep you hooked for more than 2-3 hours. All you do is swim to an island, fighting with ships on the way and then buy ammo and accept all quests on the island. You're supposed to feed your crew, but when the tutorial tells you to buy food, you buy enough to last a very long time. Also you can sail to the furthest island without feeding your crew and they won't starve.
Ship combat feels boring. You can't intentionally fight a ship: all ship battles are random encounters. Once you get into a fight, you have 4 choices: fire cannons, board ship, repair ship and flee. The battles don't require much input from you - you just hold one button to fire cannons at your enemy and the only thing that can influence how much damage you deal to the enemy is what you decide to launch at your enemy (like cannonballs or bombs). You have more influence over boarding though: boarding the enemy ship results in a minigame where you battle the enemy captain and you have to attack them while you dodge their attacks. Repairing is useless, the amount you repair barely outnumbers the amount of damage the enemy deals to you while you repair.
The quests are pretty basic, it's usually "go to island X and talk to Y". However, the dialogues you have with other characters are great. I like how lighthearted they are.
The graphics look nice - the backgrounds are detailed and it's nice to see the locals running around on the islands. The soundtrack is pretty good, too.

Overall, it feels like this game is still in Early Access, even though it isn't. It's a nice game to play for 2-3 hours, any longer than that and it'll get boring quick. Get it once it receives a big discount. From what I see the devs are still working on the game, so it may be worth it to wait for them to release more updates before buying.

Punch Club

The gameplay is very repetitive - you train, eat and sleep, work, eat and sleep, fight, repeat. Pretty much everything in the game is done with 1 click and then watching a character animation and stats as they go up and down. However, this influences the best part of the game - the fights.
While you can't fight yourself, you assign attacks before reach round that your character can use during the fight. You can use very strong attacks to defeat the opponent as soon as possible, you can use dodging abilities to completely avoid damage while reflecting attacks back to your opponent, you can use attacks that exhaust your enemy very quickly or you can use blocks to minimize received damage. This game lets you build tons of different strategies due to the large amount of different attacks and it's really satisfying to see your opponent getting wrecked before the first round even ends. While RNG is involved in the fights, it's rare to win/lose just because of good/bad luck, which makes the fights less frustrating.
The story feels cliche, which isn't surprising as the game is a one big reference to the 80s and 90s fighting movies. However, it's good enough to keep you going after hours of grinding.

I recommend this game if you don't mind the grinding - the fights get really fun when you get strong enough to literally destroy the opponents.

Crayon Physics Deluxe

2.1 hours, no achievementsBundle Appreciation Month

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A physics puzzle game. Your task is to lead the ball to the star by drawing various objects.

Each level in this game is a sandbox that lets you solve the level however you want. You can solve the level simply with just one object or you can go nuts and design a big Rube Goldberg machine. It's amazing to see people create complex solutions with a small set of tools. Unfortunately though, this game shows its age and sometimes the physics engine feels broken.
When I was playing the game I was enjoying it at first, but later I could not figure out how to solve the later levels.

If you're creative, definitely get this game. Wait for a sale though - today $20 is way too much for this game.

DuckTales Remastered

A remake (not a remaster, as the title suggests!) of DuckTales, an action platformer game for the NES.

THIS is how you remake a game. It stays very faithful to the original - level layouts are mostly the same, enemies behave the same and the bosses learned some new tricks to throw at you. It looks very gorgeous with the hand-drawn and expressive 2D sprites and the nice 3D backgrounds. The soundtrack is really amazing - the music sounds like something that would be used in the original game if it weren't for technical limitations. It's also nice to hear the original voice actors from the TV series - I'm surprised that Alan Young (aged at 92-93 during the game's development) was still willing to give his voice to Scrooge!
The gameplay is still fun even though it's identical to the original game, however the story was greatly expanded. There are cutscenes in this game, even during levels, which is quite annoying but fortunately cutscenes are skippable and completing the game at least once unlocks a "quick cinemas" option which automatically skips most cutscenes. All levels also have a "fetch quest" now - you're required to collect certain items in every level to progress and reach the boss of the stage. As for other changes from the original, there are new difficulty modes (4 in total), there is an art gallery which lets you buy the game's and the TV show's concept art with collected money and now you're able to swim around in the Money Bin (which grows the more money you collect!) Pogo jumping was also made easier with an option to use the original hard controls instead.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves platforming games and especially to those who played and liked the original and/or are fans of the TV series. I have to warn about something though - there is a bug in the PC version that causes the game to freeze during the final boss battle or during the cutscene right after the final boss battle. The cutscene can be skipped before the game freezes, but the battle cannot be skipped. From what I've read this is caused by NVidia GPU drivers, so if you intend to play this game on a PC with a NVidia GPU, consider switching to a integrated GPU or a PC with a AMD/Intel GPU for the final level to avoid this issue, as it seems like a fix won't be released anytime soon, if not never.

The Wolf Among Us

This game deserves to be in the best Telltale games club, together with The Walking Dead: Season One and Tales from the Borderlands. The story is amazing and it's so addicting that after you finish the first episode you'll want to start the second one right away. The characters are memorable and the voice acting is great.
If you've liked any of the other Telltale games, you pretty much must play this game. I'm glad that there's a Season Two coming out next year - can't wait to play it!

Saints Row: The Third

An open world action-adventure game. It's pretty much wacky Grand Theft Auto.

You can already tell from the intro that this game is going to be one hell of a crazy ride. This game is as silly as possible: bank robbers taking selfies with the hostages, people running around with oversized dildo bats, farts in jars that can be used as actual weapons and then there's this dumb car that shows up the least you expect it. (Did you know that the cigarette is actually a flamethrower? Because why not?)
I've had boatloads of fun with this game. There's so much stuff to do, so it'll keep you occupied for many hours, especially after you decide to mod the game. The story is there and it's decent, but that's not what you're here for. The music on the radios is pretty good - I've stayed on The Mix 107.77 most of the time. The graphics look really impressive for it's time. The only bad thing about this game is that it's poorly optimized - when playing I've experienced frequent FPS drops and lowering graphics settings did nothing to make the game run better.

If you're looking for a good GTA clone or just a game to mess around in, this game is for you. Make sure to get the Full Package version of this game, which contains all DLCs (except for the pay-to-win ones).

Games added to the currently playing list for this month

Current progress

13%

9%

14%

56%

9%

Conclusion

That was a pretty good month! I got to play some really nice games, and I even bought new ones during the sale! (Is that a good thing?)
For this month, I’ll be focusing on the 3 games on my currently playing on a gaming PC list - Just Cause 2, L.A. Noire and Saints Row IV. I want to get them all done to make room for Yakuza 0, which is coming out on PC on August 1st. I’m glad that it’s coming to PC - I can’t wait to play it!

May 2018 Progress

Finished games:

Minit

Oh, what this lying on the ground? A pen? I definitely could use an another one…
Oh no! The pen is cursed! The pen won't allow me to write anything for longer than 1 minute! Looks like I'll have to write multiple reviews of this game!

Review 1:
A Zelda-like game, where each life lasts only 1 minute. You walk around, solving puzzles, collecting items and trying to figure out how to remove the curse from the sword you picked up. It's a

Review 2:
In this game, you picked up a cursed sword that shortens each of your lives to 1 minute. Once 1 minute passes, you die and return to your home with all items you've collected in your previous lives. I would say tha

Review 3:
A puzzle adventure game. There isn't much to say about graphics - it's black and white, but nice. The soundtrack is great and the game will run on a 15 years old potato. If you ask me, I'll say that this game i

Review 4:
A game that you complete 1 minute at a time. A pretty short game - it can be completed in just under 2 hours and you can get all achievements in just under 5-6 hours. Once you complete the game, you unlock the second run mode which makes the game harder. Perfect for those, who don't have much time for game

Review 5:
Just play this game already.

Bully: Anniversary Edition

25.4 hours, 32 of 32 achievements

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An open-world action-adventure game. It's Grand Theft Auto, but you're a 15 year old in a school. I wanted to play this game a long, long time ago and I never got to play it until this month.

There's a ton of things to do in this game - you can play minigames at the carnival, participate in races, do pranks on fellow students, help the local people with their errands or just give wedgies to a teacher or a cop (which usually ends with a Benny Hill-style chase with every prefect/cop in school/town going after you). The plot isn't really special - it isn't really interesting, but it isn't terrible either. However, the missions are an another story - most of them have you do fun stuff, like vandalise the town hall, booby-trap a football match or bust out a teacher from the asylum. The music in this game is great, but unfortunately it's underrated. The touch screen controls are decent, however I've had a couple of issues with it - you cannot resize the "turn left" and "turn right" buttons and the automatic lock-on system will keep you locked on a opponent even after you knock him out, which is something you don't want while fighting multiple opponents.

If you love games similiar to Grand Theft Auto, definitely play this game. I've had as much fun as with the other GTA games. If you want to play this game on a PC, make sure you do some modding first - I've heard that the game doesn't run well out of the box.

100% completion screenshot:

Please, Don’t Touch Anything

A short point-and-click game. In front of you is a panel with one, big, red button and you're asked to not touch anything. If you do push the button, you'll realize that the panel holds many secrets…

The puzzles in this game are pretty simple and it's fun to watch the consequences of pushing random buttons. The music isn't outstanding, but is pretty good. The only two things I hate in this game is that in some of the parts you're required to press a specific button hundreds of times and if you press it once too much, you'll have to start from 0. Another thing I hate is the Perfectionist achievement, which requires you to get all endings in the game without pressing any unnecessary buttons - one wrong button press and you'll have to restart the whole playthrough.

Personally, I think this game is decent. Do play this game if you're looking for a fun point-and-click.

Poly Bridge

A bridge-building simulator.
I am amazed by the stuff people make in this game. However, when I gave this game a try, I could only complete the first "chapter" of the game without getting stuck. The tutorial does explain you the basics of the game, however once you reach the third "chapter" of the game, things get very difficult. I gave up on this game during the fourth "chapter", because I could not figure out the correct "answer" for one of the levels and using someone else's solution from the internet does not always guarantee that the bridge you build will pass.

By all means I don't say that this is a bad game, it's me who's bad at it. If you're good at building bridges, you'll have tons of fun with this one.

There’s some progress on CSD2, but I’m still very far from getting all gold medals from C4H shifts, especially since a big update is coming out in June.
I’ve finally managed to beat Just Cause 2, but I still have 6 achievements to go, 1 of which will require me to do 1 more playthrough.
I’m getting further in L.A. Noire - I am now in the Arson department, the final desk in the game. However, I still have tons of stuff to find and collect.
I’ve reached level 20 in Borderlands 1 and I’m close to finishing all quests in the Arid Badlands.

Current progress

April 2018 Progress

Completed/beaten games I'm done with

Fallout: New Vegas

Finally! This game took waaay longer than I thought it would. There's so much to do in this game - so many locations to visit, so many quests to complete, so many people to listen to, so many choices to make. Once you add DLC and mods, you can pretty much play this game forever, and still have stuff to complete. If you're looking for a game that gives the most bang for your buck, look no further, this game is a masterpiece and a great game to start from if you're new to the Fallout series.

Grand Theft Auto III

44.2 hours, no achievements

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I thought that I'll never 100% this game, since it is one of the hardest (if not the hardest) GTA games. I'm surprised that I haven't had many problems with the difficulty (I've completed the Espresso-2-Go! mission on first try with almost 3 minutes left on the timer, however I've struggled with Patriot Playground and A Ride in the Park). The PC port has some issues which, fortunately, can be fixed with mods, so make sure to read some guides on fixing the game (I used this guide).

Definitely give this game a go, however don't expect it to be like GTA IV or V - this game is tough as nails. Forget about maps and GPS, all you get here is a minimap. Forget about trip skips, checkpoints, auto-saves or keeping your weapons after death and be ready to visit the hospital often.

Westerado: Double Barreled

An open-world action adventure game, inspired by spaghetti westerns. Initially a free browser game, it was later released on Steam with tons of new content and lots of improvements. I love the freedom that the game gives you - you're free to go anywhere you want, threaten anyone you want, and kill anyone you want (there's even an achievement for killing every important NPC in the game). While this game is very short (around 2 hours long for 1 playthrough), it's very replayable - there's tons of quests, and completing more than half of them is pretty much impossible, since a lot of quests lock out other ones, and getting all achievements requires you to do at least 7 playthroughs.

I recommend this game. Since it's very short, it's perfect for those looking to do some quick backlog assassinations. If you're going for 100% achievements, be ready to replay this game a lot. If you're not sure if this game is for you, play the free browser version first.

Owlboy

A open world adventure game with a mix of flight and platforming. The pixel-art in this game looks truly gorgeous, the soundtrack is great and the story is nice, however the gameplay is a bit boring at times. Overall, I've had a blast with this game, if you're unsure on what to play next, try this game.

Puzzle Agent 2

A puzzle point and click game. As a FBI agent, you return to the town of Scoggins, feeling that the mystery of that town wasn't entirely solved yet. Puzzle Agent 2 continues the story from the previous game, so playing Puzzle Agent 1 first is highly recommended. This game is short and doesn't have many puzzles, but if you're looking for a good Professor Layton clone with puzzles that aren't too hard and a very good story, then give Puzzle Agent a try.

Current progress

BLAEO Generators v1.1 is out!

Hello! I’ve released a new update for BLAEO Generators! The new update adds a progress bar generator (with autofilling support!) and new features for the bar generator, like reviews. It also fixes some bugs and most likely adds new ones >:(
For those unaware, BLAEO Generators is a website that allows you to generate bars, game boxes and progress bars, which can be used in BLAEO posts.

I’ve also opened a thread in BLAEO’s Steam group, where you can post feedback, suggestions or bug reports. I’ll no longer post BLAEO Generators updates here - from now on, updates will be posted in the Steam group thread.

Examples of a bar and progress bar, made using the generator (click on the bar to see the review):